Michal Beno5 November 2026 · Pool Payouts
1Why the payout method matters
A single Bitcoin miner has almost no chance of finding a block on its own. An Antminer S21 at 188 TH/s has roughly a 1 in 5.3 million chance per block with the network near 1,000 EH/s. So almost every miner joins a mining pool: a group that combines hashrate, finds blocks often, and splits the reward.
Every pool has to answer one question: how should a member's work turn into Bitcoin? The answer is the payout method. The four common ones are PPS, FPPS, PPS+ and PPLNS. They decide two things that matter to an owner: how much is paid on average, and how much it jumps around from day to day. That jumping around is called variance.
2First, what is a share?
A pool cannot wait for a member to find a whole block to know it is working. So it sets an easier target. Any hash that beats that easy target is a share. Shares cannot win a block by themselves, but they prove how hard each miner is hashing. More hashrate means more shares, and more shares mean a bigger slice.
Block rewards have two parts. The subsidy is the new Bitcoin created with each block, 3.125 BTC since the April 2024 halving. Transaction fees are what users pay to get into a block, recently around 0.03 BTC per block in public mempool data. Different payout methods treat these two parts differently.
3The four payout methods side by side
| Share | A hash that beats the pool's easier target; proof of work done. |
| Pool fee | The percentage the pool keeps for running the service and carrying risk. |
| Pool luck | How many blocks the pool found versus how many it was expected to find. |
| Variance | How much daily payouts swing above and below the average. |
| Sat | One hundred-millionth of a Bitcoin (0.00000001 BTC). |
4The basic payout formula
Before any fee, an Antminer S21 is expected to earn about 8,460 sats a day from the subsidy and about 81 sats from fees, a total near 8,541 sats. That uses 188 TH/s, a network of about 1,000 EH/s and 3.155 BTC per block, all from public data on 30 October 2026. It is an estimate; real numbers move every block.
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In the catalogue Antminer S21
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5Worked examples: one Antminer S21, three methods
Fee levels differ from pool to pool, so the fees below are illustrative round numbers, chosen to show how the methods compare. Check the real terms of any pool before connecting.
| Expected subsidy per day | 8,460 sats |
| Fees shared | none |
| After 4% fee (8,460 x 0.96) | about 8,122 sats per day |
| 30 days | 243,660 sats = 0.0024366 BTC |
| At about $77,600 per BTC | about $189 per month |
| Expected subsidy plus fees per day | 8,541 sats |
| After 2.5% fee (8,541 x 0.975) | about 8,328 sats per day |
| 30 days | 249,840 sats = 0.0024984 BTC |
| At about $77,600 per BTC | about $194 per month |
| Expected subsidy plus fees per day | 8,541 sats |
| After 1% fee (8,541 x 0.99) | about 8,456 sats per day on average |
| A lucky week (130% pool luck) | about 10,993 sats per day |
| An unlucky week (70% pool luck) | about 5,919 sats per day |
| 30-day average | 253,680 sats = about $197 per month |
6Average pay versus smooth pay
| 254k sats |
| 250k sats |
| 244k sats |
| 10,993 sats |
| 8,456 sats |
| 5,919 sats |
The gap in averages is small: about 4% between PPS and PPLNS in this example. The gap in smoothness is large. That is why most owners who need to plan around a monthly power bill prefer FPPS. Owners who can ride out swings for a slightly higher average may choose PPLNS.
7Bigger miner, same rules
Every method scales in a straight line with hashrate. An Antminer S23 XP Hyd at 600 TH/s is expected to earn about 27,259 sats a day before fees. On FPPS with the same illustrative 2.5% fee, that is about 26,578 sats a day, or roughly $619 a month at about $77,600 per BTC. The luck swings on PPLNS scale up by the same factor, so a bigger miner does not reduce variance; only a different payout method does.
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In the catalogue Antminer S23 XP HYD
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8Picking a pool for a hosted miner
A pool choice is a settings change, not a hardware change. The pool address and worker name are entered on the miner's control board, and payouts go to the owner's wallet. The mining pool settings tutorial walks through it. For a wider view of the pool market, see pool centralization and Stratum V2.
Run the numbers for any miner and site in the profitability calculator, or browse locations on the hosting page.
9Frequently asked questions
This article is for education only and is not financial advice. Mining revenue depends on the Bitcoin price, network difficulty, fees, power costs and uptime, all of which change. Figures are estimates based on public network data and rates listed on oneminers.com on 30 October 2026; check the live pages for current rates and prices.
